Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1887-10-07
FREE WHLSKEY.

FhEE WHIShEI.
Free whiskey is the logical and inevitable
outcome of the present policy Of the party
Of protection. In the Republican con ven
tons of Ohio, Iowa, Pennsylvania, and in
the Democratic convention of Virginia, it
has been expressly declared that the aboli-
ton of the internal revenue is the proper
remedy for the surplus. The Pennsylvania
Democrats straddled the subject in defer
ence to the presence of Mr.. Randall, but in
timated that the repeal of the tobacco and
the scaling down Of, import duties on raw
materials would be proper compromise.
Nearly all of the internal revenue is COL
lected on tobacco and whiskey--one-fe fourth
on the former and three fourths on the lat
ter. The removal of the revenue tax there
fore means free Whiskey and free tobacco.
Whiskey, OF domestic manufacture, abso-
lutely untrammeled by government inter-
ference-what does it mean2 The govern
ment tax on all kinds of distilled spirits is 90
cents gallon. In addition TO this is spe-
cial Federal tax Of 800 year on whole
sale liquor dealers, $25 on retail dealers and
$50 on manufacturers of stills. Rectifiers
of spirits, also, are required to pay from
| 800 to $500 year. The expense thus
added TO the manufacture and preparation
Of liquor is paid by the man who drinks it
The net cost of the product proper, in the
present condition of the market, is estimated
as follows: Ordinary spirits 10 cents gal
lon, sour mash or sweet mash bourbons &c
cents a gallon, rye whiskey So cents gal
lon. Thus from three fourths TO four fifthi
of what is paid by the consumer for biz
drink is in the nature of tribute TO the
government. OF the remaining one. 6uhh
part is for local license, part for the bar
| lenders profit, and the small remaining bal
ance for the drink itself. If he pay 10 cents
for glass of whiskey, 8 cents is in the form
OF tax and cents for the drink itself
The abolition of the tax restrictions would
enable consumers TO buy for about $40
barrel of forty gallons of cheap whiskey. a
barrel of whiskey, in other words, woult
cost little more than barre. OF flour anc
not so much us barrel of mess pork. Tit
same quantity of the same stuff at present
brings from $50 to $50, and is beyond the
means of the poor, the tax reduction would
bring it within the reach of the humbles
citizen. Add local taxes, which in mos
places would doubtless be imposed, and tn
l -. A.. ,ho oocaur,ar ,uoula otiil no war,
small The government tax enters int
every gallon and every drink as an import
ant factor of its cost LEGAL license fees ar
thinly spread over large business. Wits
key freed from the revenue would be al
most literally free. Two, or at most thre
cents, would buy the same amount of in
toxicating drink as is now sold for ten
fifteen cents.
lift is difficult now to restrain the publ
sale of liquor, what would be the difficulty i
an untaxed market? What could local leg
islaton do to govern the indulgence of ap
petites constantly infiamed by the spectacl
of free whiskey? What, to regard the mat
ter from another point of view, would b
the cost of the police power in our cite
that would be needed TO govern sue
cheap and universal orgies
Yet the case is plainly put by the fanatics
devotees of the tariff that free whlskey
a more desirable thing than free woolen'
, Partisanism and cupidity have been stron
, combination hitherto to throttle the right
of the people, will they be strong enoug
TO deuge them in free whiskey9
Free whiskey means more distress, NOR
poverty, more suffering, more woa;, MOI
degradation, more crime and the aboAitio
If one hundred ard twenty millions ofAs'
lars Of the governments revenue.